Thinking about...

I’ve been working on yet another poem about groundhogs; well, the groundhog that has plagued me every spring and summer for quite a few years. At one point I assumed, it was a different one. However, according to “The Groundhog Fact Sheet,” (https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/blog/groundhogs-facts/), these mammals live a long time. My property or the entire neighborhood could be one groundhog’s annual vacation spot.

Photo by Andy Sanchez on Unsplash

As I read the fact sheet, I realized that in addition to possibly having an annual vacation spot, groundhogs and humans are similar in other ways. For instance, groundhogs and humans:

• Have an affinity for forest edges, meadows, open fields, roads, streams and dense forests.

• Are good swimmers

• Can climb tall shrubs and trees

• Digging activities damage surface vegetation

• Roam places looking for potential mates

• Whistle at potential mates and getting to know them

• Build homes that include a sleeping chamber, a nursery chamber, and a waste chamber

• Are so numerous that, in some places, they’re regarded as pests.

Groundhogs are considered a species of least concern for extinction. In some ways, humans could also fall under this category. However, given our penchant for armed conflict, we humans might annihilate ourselves using weapons of mass destruction.

Groundhogs are considered one of the few true hibernators. They are virtually lifeless balls for about 150 days each year.

I wonder what the world would be like if humans hibernated. The closest we’ve come in my lifetime has been when many of us adhered to stay-at-home orders during the global pandemic. Depending on location, countries were locked down between one and seven months. Air and noise pollution decreased and wildlife roamed more freely. What would the world look like if humans were physiologically able to hibernate for a month each year – all humans, together? (In my fictional scenario, time zones wouldn’t matter, so some would hibernate in winter and others in warmer seasons.)

A world in which humans hibernate is a good story idea. Let me know if you (or another author) write a story using this scenario. I’d love to read it.

Here is an excerpt from a draft of my poem, “A Species of Least Concern”:

He takes but returns nothing.

Birds eat flora and fauna and

brighten my day with songs like stories.

Bees and hummingbirds pollinate, flit uplifting color.

Dragonflies gloriously dapple the light.

The groundhog gives me nothing, I’m certain.

Have a lovely day, readers!